POPE FRANCIS APOLOGIZES AMIDST PROTESTS, CHURCH BURNINGS
SANTIAGO Pope Francis begged for forgiveness Tuesday for the “irreparable damage” done to children who were raped and molested by priests, opening his visit to Chile by diving head-first into a scandal that has greatly hurt the Catholic Church’s credibility here and cast a cloud over his visit.
Francis faced controversy on another front as well: Overnight, three more Catholic churches were torched, including one burned to the ground in the southern Araucania region where Francis will visit Wednesday to meet with Chile’s Indigenous peoples. While not causing any injuries, the nine church firebombings in the past few days have marked an unprecedented level of protest against history’s first Latin American pontiff on his home turf.
Francis, who is making his first visit as Pope to this country of 17 million people, has been met with distrust in some quarters and demonstrations. The Argentine Pope is nearly a native son, having studied in Chile during his Jesuit novitiate and he knows the country well, but Chileans give him the lowest approval rating among the 18 Latin American nations in a recent survey.
At a protest Tuesday near O’Higgins park where Francis celebrated Mass, police fired tear gas and water cannons before detaining several dozen demonstrators, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene. Protesters carried signs with messages reading, “Burn, Pope!” and, “We don’t care about the Pope!”
In Santiago, though, an estimated 400,000 jubilant Chileans turned out in droves for his first public Mass.